ATLANTA, April 23, 2014 – The UP Original Movie Apple Mortgage Cake was the network’s strongest original movie premiere this year among key demos, teaming with the television network premiere of The Passion of the Christ to drive UP’s two-week “Easter Lives Here” programming stunt to new ratings highs in primetime.

For the two-week period, “Easter Lives Here” earned a 0.39 household rating in prime with an average audience of 343,000 P2+. That represents a 30% gain in prime over last year’s Easter celebration on UP (source 1). For the eight days of Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday (April 13-20),”Easter Lives Here” earned a 0.45 household rating in prime with an average audience of 403,000 P2+, up 38% from last year (source 2).

The premiere of Apple Mortgage Cake on April 20 was UP’s strongest Original Movie premiere this year among W25-54, W18-49, A25-54 and A18-49. The movie garnered a household rating of 0.42 with an average audience of 397,000 P2+. Among all ad-supported cable networks, Apple Mortgage Cake ranked most competitively among African-American W25-54 (#11) and W18-49 (#16). Among total W25-54, it ranked 37th, and among total W18-49 it ranked 39th (source 3).

“These strong ratings verify that UP has firmly established itself as the television home for Easter,” said Charley Humbard, president and CEO, UP. “‘Easter Lives Here’ is an important tent pole for us to present our extensive Easter and original programming as is our ‘Christmas Lives Here’ celebration which kicks off in November and runs through Christmas. Both deliver the type of programming our loyal viewers want to see during these holiday seasons, and also attract many new viewers to our network, giving us an opportunity to promote our full lineup of uplifting, family-friendly programming.”

Apple Mortgage Cake is the inspiring true story of Teaneck, New Jersey resident Angela Logan who, when faced with foreclosure, set a goal to bake 100 cakes in 10 days to save her home. The films stars four-time NAACP Image Award winner Kimberly Elise (Diary of a Mad Black Woman, “Grey’s Anatomy”).

The UP television network premiere (first time on commercial television) of The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s blockbuster retelling of Jesus’ final hours, delivered UP’s strongest telecast ever among households and key demos on Palm Sunday, April 13.

The April 13 airing was UP’s strongest telecast ever in total households and among W18-49, W25-54, A18-49, A25-54 and P2+. The premiere telecast averaged a 1.2 household coverage rating, with an average audience of 1.1 million viewers 2+. The household coverage rating placed UP 8th in the time period among ad-supported cable. UP ranked 7th among P2+ and 10th among W25-54 and A25-54 (source 4).